Question: After meeting with six licensed and insured pool contractors, we have selected the firm we want to build our dream in-ground concrete pool. What happens after the contracts are signed? Answer: Before turning the first shovel of dirt, you should have all the documents that you and the company representative or owner signed, along with the final "working" pool drawing. This legally binding contract and executed final pool drawing will be your guide and blueprint. Once the contract is signed, you have a three-day right to rescind or cancel the contract.

AFTER SEVERAL YEARS of working with clients who had no idea how the process of designing and constructing a house proceeded, Cocoa Beach architect-builder Mike Houston decided that most people needed help to guide them through the problem-fraught process. Houston has prepared three checklists that cover such topics as: the range of options and costs for obtaining house plans; how to determine a project budget; what should be included in working drawings; how to decide on a design and how to determine the mortgage amount for which you will qualify.

Inside the modern cult of originality, it's a well-kept secret that -- whisper, now -- artists are influenced by other artists. No wonder, then, that Cornell Fine Arts Museum received such a lively and varied response when it commissioned 12 local artists to create new works in response to a work in the museum's permanent collection. Surprise! Artists like to be influenced. Curator Theo Lotz named the exhibition "Double Vision," on view this summer at the Rollins College museum, and he admits there were surprises for him in the artists' choices.

The best way to get a house that makes the most of your lifestyle and site is to hire an architect.If you're not sure about what to look for, here's what architects do and how they set fees, according to Better Homes and Gardens Home Plan Ideas.Get a list of recommended architects from friends, builders, associations or banks. Then make a round of visits.Ask to see houses the architect has designed and discuss generally the project you have in mind. Be sure to discuss your proposed budget.

Computer Sciences Corp., a California-based info-tech giant, has launched a multimillion-dollar simulation unit in Orlando that expects to create close to 50 jobs in its early stages, the company said Thursday. If the unit is as successful as hoped, the work force could more than double over the next year with the addition of engineers, programmers and other high-tech, high-wage staff, company officials said. Lured by the large local presence of military simulation-training agencies, Computer Sciences built on a site in Central Florida Research Park, home to the nation's largest multiagency war-game research complex and many of Computer Sciences simulator-technology competitors.

Whatever type of remodeling project you plan, it begins to take shape first on paper, as the contractor assembles the drawings and specifications that provide a clear picture of what will be done and a clear listing of every material and item needed.There are few steps in a renovation that are not tedious by themselves, and drawings and ``specs'' may seem to take a lot of time and effort while nothing gets built.But it's a lot less tedious than it was before the arrival of computers and sophisticated programs that allow a savvy contractor to show you exactly what your completed project will look like, down to where the handles will be on the drawers.

The Mount Dora Center for the Arts will showcase the works of Diana Cash on Aug. 8 through Sept. 12. The exhibition, ''Abstract Narrations,'' will feature a variety of Cash's paintings.A reception is planned from 7 to 9 p.m. Aug. 8 at the center, 138 E. Fifth Ave., Mount Dora. The public is invited to the free event.Cash, a former educator, draws on different aspects of art history's masters from the colors of Van Gogh to the energetic brush strokes of the Primitives to create her whimsical textured paintings, which have been featured in a number of galleries throughout Florida.

Harry Messersmith, director of the DeLand Museum of Art, may be perfectly sincere in saying he planned the museum's current exhibition ''to pay tribute to teachers of art'' whom he had admired since his own years as an art student.But seeing the show itself raises some doubt. Messersmith may have used his tribute to ''artists/educators'' as an excuse to fill his DeLand gallery with work by some of the best artists in the state.''Arists/Educators: Five in Florida'' offers five coherent artistic visions, five examples of technical mastery, five quests to discover new truths.

A Winter Springs artist who takes newspaper recycling to heart was the top winner at the Mount Dora Arts Festival over the weekend, earning best of show for the second year in a row.Anna Chen, a watercolor artist who paints Chinese artifacts on Orlando Sentinel classified ad sections, bested about 300 other entrants from across the country to take the top prize.''It was an impossible dream,'' Chen said of her second win.Her winning watercolor, ''Oriental Heritage,'' depicts mah-jongg tiles scattered across a pale background with vaguely discernible classified advertisements.

Some kids are mad for Madonna. Teen-age artist Scott Bauer has a passion for Adonis.Kissimmee's Bauer, 19, has an exhibit of 11 works of art, mostly oil paintings, at the Osceola Center for the Arts. The paintings will be on display through Wednesday.Bauer, who has been interested in art since he was old enough to hold a pencil, found the medium of his dreams when he began painting with oils at the age of 16.His favorite subjects are characters from Greek and Roman mythology - Adonis, Flora, Venus.

Two of three key members of Florida's congressional delegation have pledged to work for increased federal funding for the Kissimmee River restoration.U.S. Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla., and U.S. Rep. Bill Lehman, a Dade County Democrat, both say they want the federal government to fund 75 percent of the project.Traditionally, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers funds 75 percent of its projects.However, last week the corps recommended that it pay far less - just half of construction costs and nothing for land in the mammoth $514 million public works project.